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Keylogger virus infects drone plane command centre

The hot news on the blogosphere at the moment is the revelation that a Keylogger virus has infected the drone plane command centre at Creech air force base in Nevada.

Keylogging (or Keystroke logging) is the action of tracking (or logging) the keys struck on the keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware. The Keylogger virus is used to capture users’ passwords, credit card details and bank account numbers as people type them in. The data is then sent over the web to fraudsters. Security officials are currently unable to completely remove the virus, as it keeps reinstalling itself, suggesting that the attack vector has not been plugged.

Creech air force base in Nevada is the command centre for the remotely piloted aircraft used in Afghanistan including the Predator drone spyplane-bomber. The Predator is a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system which is used in Afghanistan and, more controversially, across the border in Pakistan.

This is the latest security breach for the hi-tech remotely piloted vehicle system; the US military has previously found out that Iraqi insurgents were able to capture and record the footage being sent to troops and back to the airbase by cameras on the drones. The insurgents hacked into video feeds, which were not encrypted, using a $26 piece of Russian software named SkyGrabber. Apparently The encryption for the feeds were removed for performance reasons.

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Another Email Hoax To Avoid

Another one of those pesky email hoaxes popped into our in-box today. It was the Simon Ashton hoax, with the warning forwarded by a well meaning friend. As we tell all our staff, collogues, customers and friends, the email hoax works because people think “better safe than sorry”

The amount of email that a typical hoax can generate is a major cost to organisations. Just think of a company with 60 employees; if each person takes a minute to read a hoax virus email, that will cost an hour of lost productivity. Then if half of them spend a couple of minutes forwarding it to their friends, that is another hour lost! Once a few people in your company have received a warning and mailed it to all their friends and colleagues, a mail overload can easily result.

We support the advice that companies should consider circulating a policy on virus hoaxes to all their staff, in an attempt to avoid the costs involved.

For a sample anti hoax virus policy click here to visit Sophos – Don’t fall for a virus hoax

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Avoid Spreading Virus Hoaxes

Today we recieved one of the emails that you get occasionally, which promises a masivly damaging virus is just about to strike. This one had the headline HUGE VIRUS COMING! PLEASE READ & FORWARD!

We always advise people to check these messages out via a reputable website like McAfee or Sophos, because many of them are hoaxes. In fact they are realy a form of computer virus that is spread by well meaning people. The message is usually a chain e-mail that tells the recipient to forward it to everyone they know. Some IT specialists consider virus hoaxes and other chain e-mails to be a computer worm in and of themselves, as they replicate by exploiting users’ ignorance or emotional responses.

McAfee advise users who receive the email to delete it and DO NOT pass it on, as this is how an email HOAX propagates.

Click here to visit McAfee Virus Hoaxes
Click here to visit Sophos Don’t fall for a virus hoax